September 13, 2010

Categories:

A couple of influential writers broadly in sympathy with Obama today float the same notion: That we're living in a fundamentally unreasonable age, that voters basically can't be trusted, and that democracy is just barely muddling through.

Anyone who spends much time covering American politics feels this sometimes. At the same time, it's a lot easier to think this when your side is losing politically.

Nine years later, the main fact of our lives is the overwhelming force of unareason. Evidence, knowledge, argument, proportionality, nuance, complexity, and the other indispensable tools of the liberal mind don’t stand a chance these days against the actual image of a mob burning an effigy, or the imagined image of a man burning a mound of books. Reason tries in its patient, level-headed way to explain, to question, to weigh competing claims, but it can hardly make itself heard and soon gives up. ....

This is why Obama seems less and less able to speak to and for our times. He’s the voice of reason incarnate, and maybe he’s too sane to be heard in either Jalalabad or Georgia. An epigraph for our times appears in Jonathan Franzen’s new novel “Freedom”: “The personality susceptible to the dream of limitless freedom is a personality also prone, should the dream ever sour, to misanthropy and rage.”

...yet now, especially, that unreason seems to have taken an almost pathological turn. It is as if America is intent on destroying itself, its civil society, its fiscal future, and its next generation in an endless fit of mutual recrimination, neurotic nationalism, and religious division.

Those are particularly clear expressions of an argument being made increasingly and one that will, I think, be heard increasingly on the left if the midterms go as badly as expected, which isn't a judgment one way or the other on its accuracy.

Share this Article

Reader Comments (145)

Pages

1

A couple of points. First, this elitism and distrust for the people is in large part why the people no longer trust the left. Second, self-serving, insular pity parties like this one are just a distraction that weakens the left further. All it accomplishes is to distract them from the course corrections they will need to make if they ever wish to pretend to represent the will of the people again. As a conservative, I hope they have a pity party for the next 50 years so this is in no way a complaint. Just a simple observation.

Republicans I bet we are going to agree on this. Whiney ***** crap, we haven't even lost yet and these guys are mourning the loss of America. While my emotional side wants to agree because of the sweeping loses we are facing and my inability to understand it. My rational side on the other hand tells me to stop crying and do something. There is still too months until the election we are going to lose a lot more seats if we sit around and ***** about other people being to stupid to understand us. This is politics the populace is breaking up with us it isn't emotional they are firing us it is business, and we better get back to business.

This article points back to the need of a Poll tax or poll test! Imagine having to know the representative of your district before being handed a ballot? Maybe just having to fill in your address might even suffice.I have long stated that too many people are too ignorant of most everything to allow them to vote for our nations direction.I cant wait for Leno's Jaywalking on Nov.3rd.I am sure it will be full of our best and brightest stars from the colleges of the USA.

Tom, I would like to suggest you have all congressional Dems run on Obamacare, stimulus programs and denial of states' rights to enforce immigation law. Be proud of who you guys are and run on your record if you dare.

In Michigan's 3rd district, the GOP candidate is posting insane articles on micro chipped garbage bins, and other factually wrong things and his supporters eat it up hook line and sinker.
If being a good Republican means discounting facts and reason, then you can try to sign somebody else up.

Andrew Sullivan, author of inumerable posts alleging that Sarah Palin is not the mother of her son, says the American people lack reason. Pot meet kettle. BTW Ben, good job not pointing out the obvious.

Mike Ross, your state has been turned into the US equivalent of a third world country by liberalism. The Republican candidate could be wearing a tin foil hat and he would still be a better pick than your guy. You guys have set the bar incredibly low. Particuarly in your state.

Institutional erosion is a problem. Our constitution is just a piece of paper without it. The main thrust of one major political party is that gov't is bad, always. If that was 100% true I'm unsure why one would want to join gov't, but that is the club they use to get into power. It in turn destroys the fundamentals of society, i.e. the President is a legitimate leader, law makers should make laws that govern society, and judges should oversee those laws, etc.

Most felt that "irrationality, recrimination, America off its bearings" in Nov 2008 after that one got elected. Today its only the commies/fascists in the left wingNUT media that feel that. Definitely a great Improvement.

Posted By: Most felt that "irrationality, recrimination, America off its bearings" in Nov 2008 after that one | September 13, 2010 at 01:38 PM

God this George Packer sure sounds like one that was immersed (and enjoys it too) up that one's rear end for a loooooong time now. He calls the naivette, clueless, babble mouth (sans teleprompter), man child "voice of reason incarnate" . Kooky Twilite Zone times on the left, and amusing as always.

Posted By: God this George Packer sure sounds like one that was immersed (and enjoys it too) up that one's rear | September 13, 2010 at 01:42 PM

'LEAVE NO DEMOCRATZI 'LOON' STANDING IN NOVEMBER'! The lunacy of the left is being put forth to the tea in this thread! This is why...'real' America is going to see that the balance of power changes in November bringing hope to save us from their lunacy! IMPEACHMENT OR THE 'ORIGINAL' RECORDS OF BIRTH...IT IS JUST A MATTER OF TIME...AND 2010 WILL BE THE TIME TO END THE LUNACY...GUARANTEED!

All of the criticisms voiced by Sullivan and Packer are valid. The only correction, that would be affirmed by the majority of Americans, is that they apply specifically to Obama and his far-left extremist agenda.

Posted By: All of the criticisms voiced by Sullivan and Packer are valid. The only correction, that would be a | September 13, 2010 at 01:47 PM

Yeah dan i heard all about liberal mayors on Glenn Beck too, I should've repeated it first. But he left the whole thing about crippling unemployment and poverty in states in the south and midwest were republicans have had supermajoritys in state legislatures for a generation. Hes so unbiased I'm sure this was an honest oversight, agreed?

Notice how when the voters reject the liberals and their comically misnamed party the Democrats, that liberals rather than asking where they went wrong, instead denounce the voters and democracry itself...

... Ben, nice of you to come out of the Elitist closet... If you can't trust voters move to Iran, they seem to do quite well keeping the stupid voters from having a say. I realize it must be hard letting the majority of a country have a say and it worked for 235 years just by pure luck, but just maybe they might collectively know more then you do.

Tom, I live in a southern state where unemployment is well below the national average. And as for Michigan, it's unemployment rate was horrible even before the recession started. Basically Michigan had a several year head start. It was in all the papers Tom. I'm not exactly sure why this is news to you.

I would blame the libs for destroying America. They have no loyalty to this country. They just want everything handed to them with no responsibilities or consequenses. They are immature and always act like toddlers when they don't get their way.

More to the point is the impossibility to pull together a unifying policy. Both parties are too extreem to be happy with a pragmatic law. The Health Care bill improved Medicare by extending the budgeting for a few more years and covering millions of uninsured Americans and added protections for everyone, but this was not enough for either side. Liberals wanted a Public Option and Conservatives wanted no increase in taxes and no cuts to current benefit levels. No one was happly to give up a little to get a lot. I don't think Democracy or any other form of Government can work in this climate.

This is exactly why the politically correct, nuanced, elitist, holier than thou, my sh*t don't stink Liberals are despised across this nation.... Although I have to admit, in 2008 they got the 'voters are stupid' attitude right, evidence... the election of the incompetent moron empty suited, jacka*ss, dumber than a box of rocks, clueless Marxist Obamadinejad, who continues to wage war on America.

Tom, There is nothing rational about your inability to make us in flyover country unable to understand you. WE DO, and are sick of your mentality that those of us that do not reside in your cesspools, called libcities are tired of cleaning up after you and your policies. Are you actually so naive to think that a farmer in Kansas "wants " to send you more of his money to support you and you progressive thoughts. No we like it out hear because there are less of you here. But now we are being asked to further foot the bill for more of your idiocy.Enough I say,live the way you want,where you want ,but you need to stop asking us to support you.As for your emotional side,,,MAN UP or does yellow just make you sad! You want to know what makes me sad,You do!

The latest Pew Poll shows that Obama opponents (listeners of Limbaugh and Hannity) know more about political facts than Obama supporters (listeners to CNN and MSNBC).
More self-aware, nuanced Leftists might just consider the possibility that THEY are the unreasonable ones...

Liberals and Democrats are the biggest sore losers in the world! They can't admit they lost an election. So, they'll hire lawyers to litigate the results to death, and find phantom votes in the most mysterious of places. "Oh, that's where those 1800 absentee ballots were: the trunk of my car! OOPS!" Thus, Norm Coleman is declared the winner of the Minnesota Senate election 2 days after the vote, but Al Franken "won" the election after 2 months of legal wrangling. Likewise in Florida in 2000, George W. Bush won the initial vote and machine recount, thus "forcing" Al Gore to sue and demand a recount, not statewide mind you, but just in four heavily Democrat counties. The Supreme Court of course put an end to this Democrat attempt to steal the election...but, liberals to this day claim that Gore "won" Florida: the evil Supreme Court just didn't give Gore and his team time to find "missing" absentee ballots in the Everglades!

Lest we forget what sore losers these Democrats and liberals are: when George W. Bush won re-election in 2004, many liberals wanted to secede from the Union! No longer, was it good enough for them to just pack up their things and move overseas in a temper tantrum! No, they wanted the entire North East and Pacific coast to secede and join Canada! These liberals are so power hungry that they will attempt to break up the nation if they don't get their way at the ballot box! The biggest sore losers around!

Founder did you even read my first post? I agree with you these are both BS arguments. Its politics its not that we are underselling it is that we are underachieving I was blasting the democrats. I guess that is what I get for trying to be moderate, I also didn't say fly over states Dan put those words in my mouth, but again your a republican and we are "debating" why should I expect you to listen to or even attempt to understand my point.

Ryan you are losing it, in Florida republican obstruction forced the counting of ballots to go past the assigned deadline. You can think you won Florida and we tried to steal it, but just the opposite is true. Republican Sec. Of State Harris shut down the recounts on the orders of then candidate Bush's brother. What would Glenn Beck say, "Gee maybe that's just a coincidence?" and we'd all know what he meant.

Tom, the New York Times and CNN both did their own recounts after Bush was in office and both concluded that Bush won in Florida no matter how the ballots were parsed, hanging chads and all. So, start being logical and stop living in liberal fantasy land.

Ha! It's not that voters can't be trusted. It's that government can't be trusted to do the voters' bidding.

The elite isn't supposed to "trust" the voters to do the elite's bidding. Democracy doesn't work that way. First, the people say what they want. Then the government does it.

The political class doesn't establish what's right and proper, and then have the voters follow along. That's not democracy, that's oligarchy. Must as some pundits fancy themselves an aristocracy, in this country they are not, and never will be.

Posted By: Ha! It's not that voters can't be trusted. It's that government can't be trusted to do the voters' | September 13, 2010 at 03:08 PM

Ryan which one of us in a fantasy you didn't dispute a single fact in my post and you are running around this post like a madman saying just blatantly stupid things like, "No, they wanted the entire North East and Pacific coast to secede and join Canada!" what reputable liberal source told you that? or are you just talking out of your ass? Because I bet I know a lot more liberals than you and not even the most pinko one of them ever said anything like that.

Lawrence O'Donnell and Michael Moore both wanted the Blue states to secede after the 2004 elections. Several articles were written by liberal columnist suggesting the same thing. Vermont even had a convention discussing secession. You could easily Google this stuff Tom, rather than trying to petulantly deny the truth.

Ryan because nothing is sacred, voter corruption has gone on forever if you had been alive for the Nixon v Kennedy election if that had taken place in 2000 I guarantee you would've been demanding recounts in Illinois after Daley and the Mob gave Kennedy the election and probably rightly so. You'd rather just trust that everything is on the up and up. Also while your at it did you really ever hear a liberal say the coasts should join canada?

Yes, Lawrence O'Donnel well known liberal and former Democrat staffer wanted the Blue states to secede and join Canada. Michael Moore did as well and even had a map on his website showing the Blue states joined in a greater Canada and the Red states as "Jesus Land."

Tom, Nixon was urged by Eisenhower and many others to demand a recount since Kennedy clearly didn't win the election fairly and massive voter fraud was known of in both Texas and Illinois. But, for the good of the country Nixon refused to demand a recount. He knew it wold be bad for the country and undermine Kennedy's legitamcy. Had Al Gore even had an ounce of class he would've realized the same thing in 2000.

Interesting.
This is the same Andrew Sullivan, of course, who stated that the US under Bush was a "thinly-veiled military dictatorship". Direct quote.
Which comes as a surprise since Bush is no longer heading the country (thankfully).
Sullivan also said that Gitmo was "Bush's Gulag". Yes, Gulag as in the Soviet prison system where millions of Soviets lived under forced-labor conditions for decades simply for opposing the government.
We all can't be as reasonable as rational as Mr. Sullivan, I suppose.

It sounds just like pathetic journolista talking points to me. Crummy people say crummy things just like all you journolistas, the whole of you are pathetic. I wish you all would lose your jobs and just go away.

When you over promise and under deliver, are you ever rewarded for it in real life - ever?
No. Democrats have produced nothing tangible. A trillion dollars down the drain with absolutely nothing to show for it.
If Obama had any shame or self-awareness, he would have resigned after the "stimulus" debacle. He clearly does not know what he's doing.

@3:22: Bush was the petitioner in 2000. First, in FL -- filed for a federal injunction to stop the count (denied); again when he joined FL SOS's suit to stop the count (denied); again when he submitted complaint to US federal appeals court in FL to stop the count (denied); and finally he petitioned the US Supreme Court.

Well, if the electorate is unreasonable and not to be trusted in this election, I guess it was as unreasonable and untrustworthy in the previous one.
Now, as the Party of No (Democracy), do Packer and Sullivan have replacement modes of government in mind, or are they just saying No?

IIRC, folks in old soviet russia who disagreed with the party were institutionalized as crazy (You'd have to be CRAAAZY to not love Uncle Joe!)
Unless of course, they were sent to siberia or simply shot.

Well, look, the electorate in any democracy can be pretty silly at times. As Churchill said, democracy is the worst form of government except when compared to all the others.
And that was made before he was thrown out of office after WWII.
And we all know that the Framers loathed democracy since they viewed it too often as mob rule (tyranny of the majority and all that).
But these complaints are cheap politics by those of an ideology that is increasingly out of touch with America. America needs an healthy liberal movement; what we don't need is a reactionary movement that ignores reality.
And please, isn't it time for Mr. Sullivan to go home? He's called us a dictatorship and now he smears the American people. Leave, Mr. Sullivan, go home.

Al Gore sued first and took his case to the Florida Supreme Court which attempted to rewrite state election laws. The U.S. Supreme Court demanded to know on what statute the Florida Supreme Court was relying on for their highly selective 4 county recount, the Florida Supreme Court made up some cockamamy excuse and only then did the U.S. Supreme court intervene. Bush did sue, but only after Gore and the Florida Supreme court tried to steal the election. FACT: never has a ballot count existed that showed Gore winning Florida. All you liberals had was the highly premature media projections of Gore winning Florida. That is it. The hard count and the machine recount both went in Bush's favor and even the New York Times conceded that even if every hanging chad ballot was included, Bush still beat Gore in Florida!

When you start hearing this type of talk, soon thereafter you will begin hearing about how the people shouldn't vote, that leadership should be left to the elite.
You know, the same elite who says the voters can't be trusted.

What is the journOlist solution to this "misanthropy and rage?"
Now that the journOlisters have played-out the race card, they are working on a new meme: we are "unreasonable and can't be trusted."
Hilarious stuff Ben!

I thought the definition of insanity was to continue to the same wrong things over and over and expect to get a different result. It seems to me it is the liberal elite who are insane. Tax and spend has been tried over and over and failed (insane). Big government and central planning has been tried over an over and failed (insane). Universal health care to control costs has been tried over and over again(insane).

So Merry Andrew Sullivan, the man who is so obsessed with Sarah Palin that, by his OWN ACCOUNT, he had to take a day off after reading her book in order to compose himself, is allowed to opine on "rationality."
For two years now, Sullivan has been ranting on and on about Trig Palin and demanding that Sarah Palin submit to his investigation. I suspect that he is allowed to blog because where he goes at night, he is not allowed to have any sharp implements.
If the straightjacket fits, wear it.

Frank we agree on the definition of insanity, but not on who is guilty of it. What new ideas have the republicans had in the last 2 decades? Other than tired trickle down economics where the money seems to stop coming down fairly close to the top. I am serious what new ideas because it seems to me both partys just keep banging their heads together on the same ideas.

It's not insanity - it's the end of irrational exuberance with Barack Obama. If you want to be more technical, it's the market correction. The liberal bubble is bursting.
Read the article on this subject here:
http://hyphenatedamericans.blogspot.com/

Here is my whole quote ass hole, "we are going to lose a lot more seats if we sit around and ***** about other people being to stupid to understand us" the bleeped out word is b!tching. We are saying the same thing. On a side note you should work for fox they need editors like you. Don't worry I'm not holding my breath for an apology.

Obama is reason incarnate!?!??!?!
Obama is full of nonsense.
Barely anything he says has meaning.
Speech after speech after speech, all i hear outof him is junk that sounds important and deep but actually shallow nonsense,when they aren't outright lies.

Ryan you are losing it, in Florida republican obstruction forced the counting of ballots to go past the assigned deadline. You can think you won Florida and we tried to steal it, but just the opposite is true. Republican Sec. Of State Harris shut down the recounts on the orders of then candidate Bush's brother."
What a load of nonsense. Bush won the election, Harris followed Fla. state LAW that required a deadline to certify the election. The FLA SC entered the fray and endless silly recounts followed.
The SC said enough of this nonsense.
later on, two independent counts show Bush DID win.

How enlightened you are Tom.Your mistake was to infer that you are not a partisan hack to say -------"we" haven't even lost yet"-----then to state-------"While my emotional side wants to agree because of the sweeping loses "we" are facing and my inability to understand it." and then to say" "we" are going to lose a lot more seats if "we" sit around and ***** about other people being to stupid to understand "us." ----Please Tom no more 2000 page plans to rescue me from myself and ones self reliance ,Guess you shouldn't have used the "we" line so much to prove you are not a libbie.As for your other Posts on this site Unless there is another Tom I see no moderation in them. For Ryan T. the name of the state Vermont wanted to form with Canada was Arcadia.The only problem they encountered was New Hampshire's reluctance to the idea,if you want to call it that.

RE: Dan & Mike Ross discussiing Dem/Rep economics and the great state of Michigan...... I am two things that pertain here: (1) I'm a former Democrat, and (2) I'm a former Michigander. The wonderful leadership of Jimmy Carter cured me of both - I had to pick up and leave my home state of Michigan because of this troublesome addiction I have to food and shelter, neither of which were feasible under Democratic leadership at the local, state, and federal level in the Carter years. These Obama years are Carter redux. Back in the late 1970s there were billboards set up alongside 1-75 South and any other instate leaving Michigan, billboards that read, "Will The Last Person Leaving Michigan Please Turn Out The Lights!" Well, happy days are here again, Mike. Just keep votong Democrat and you too can be a transplanted North Carolinian like me.

Sullivan:
"...its next generation in an endless fit of mutual recrimination, neurotic nationalism, and religious division."
Hyperbole and exaggeration: A++
Historical context: F-
For any minority - religious or racial or ethnic or sexual - it's safer to live in America in 2010 than it is in any other large diverser nation in the world. Not only safer, but freer and better.
It is absurd - and the height of irrationality - to describe America today as some sort of xenophobic, nativist regime. Just absurd.
Are we perfect? Of course not. Are there still to many example of "hate crimes" or other outrages? Yes. One is one too many.
But to characterize America today in the terms that Sullivan does is risible.

At this point I say let the baggers have their way. Elect Palin president and give her a congress full of loopy nutcases like Angle, O'Donnell and Paul. You think it's bad now? Before long even FOX will run screaming for the hills. Ever see the movie Idiocracy? That's exactly what we're becoming. A mob of anti-intellectuals who think in soundbites and convert every issue into a team sport. I say give them the problems of the day. It should be very enlightening to voters if the country actually survives it.

Updating the issue regarding the vote counts in Forida 10 years ago -it was AL Gore's folks who planned to give him a more satisfying vote recount by hand massaging his hanging chads until they released...

Jim's comment "No one was happly to give up a little to get a lot" pretty much sums up the divide. Leftists still seem to think that money falls out of the sky (or grows on trees, pick your cliche) for all their high ideas. Here's the thing, Jim, you don't get a lot for a little, especially from the government. Only an ivory tower elitist separated from reality would think that.
Leftists/elitists think the rest of us are just worker ants who should just happily trudge off to work every day till we die, happy to turn our produce over to our elite betters, so they can fete each other on the cocktail circuit over how good a job they do taking care of the plebes. They are shocked that the worker ant might actually have his own ideas about how he wants to live and that maybe he'd like to keep some of the fruits of his labors. Elitists don't understand this, as they've never done any labor.

Well, it seems to me that if a person is legally defined as pathologically unreasonable and intent on self destruction that the interests of the state might be invoked to protect the poor son-of-a-gun from him (or her) self. It further seems that the last oportunity for the "Party of reason" to enshrine this sort of definition in law might be after the elections in November. As much contempt as I have for the Reid/Pelosi crowd, I do not think they will try to pull that off.
Now, passing cap-and trade, card-check, a huge tax increase (VAT?) and other assorted skullduggery i a lame duck session? I will bet money on that one.
Oddly enough, it might be better for conservatives to stay home in November, letting the progressives run the country straight into the dirt on their own terms, so we will not have to deal with them apres' le deluge.

"Obama’s the voice of reason incarnate, and maybe he’s too sane to be heard in either Jalalabad or Georgia."
For the life of me, I don't understand why anyone (including many prominent conservatives) continue to insist that Obama's so brilliant. I've yet to see that proven.
The arguments I've heard are: 1) he attended Ivy-league schools. So did Bush, and we were assured that he was an idiot. Furthermore, we've never seen grades to indicate whether Obama performed well. 2) he's a brilliant speaker. Debatable, since I can read aloud with verve, too, but no one would call me a brilliant speaker. The day he gives a moving oration without the aid of a teleprompter is the day I will concede this point. In fact, the things he says off-script are downright embarrassing.
And..... well, that's pretty much it. I think it's more due to liberals believing that they are geniuses, and therefore anyone who agrees with them is also a genius and anyone who disagrees, a dolt.
Also to the drive-by slander of Georgia: GO TO HELL, ***HOLE. I know people here who would clean your clock in a debate.

yes, very true benster. a familair meme. that we have heard repeatedly (1980, 1994, etc). making its comeback. for all the reasons everyone has reported here.
but if you really want to be on the cuttng edge, here's the next 'big thing' thats making a comeback: america itself is ungovernable. it is too complicated a job to be president anymore (insert lots of reasons: partianship, global economic interconnectivity, scope and/or multiplicity of "problems"). one man just CANT do it. not well. not like 'they' used to!! first time around, late 1970s, during the carter "malaise". i have seen hints, snippets, tiptoeing up to the edge of the waters on THIS old meme twice in the last 2 weeks. my guess is we'll see more of this one after Nov 2. and of course by 1984 no one was writing those stories anymore. the current writers of course fail to conclude that for SOME , yes, it is too "hard". and too "complicated". those that aren't well versed in managing "things", yep. but for those with organized minds, who have experience problem solving and managing, it aint such a monumental impossibility. it just SEEMS that way NOW due the the current occupants severe lack of needed qualities. quite amusing really. same vein as this meme. if "we" disagree with the elitists, we must be crazy or carrying on a tantrum. ah yes. and if "their guy" cant do the job, then the JOBS too hard. its not "us", dorks, and it aint "the job", capice?

Yeah, I wrote all about that in Book VIII of the Republic. Freedom is the opposite of knowledge. Freedom is ignorance. Not that the Democrats are the knowledgable ones. They are more like the busibodies who executed Socrates...

I have long held you know what the left is feeling guilty about by what they accuse Republicans of... projection is what leftists do best.
So yeah the left is irrational.
Did you see the Greek columns at the convention?
Looney Tunes

Sometimes I wonder if the deification of Obama is intentional, or perhaps just so heartfelt that it comes out naturally. Consider this:
Obama is described as "the voice of reason incarnate." Compare this to "the Word became flesh."
The greek word for "the Word" is Logos, which is associated with both logic and reason. Accident? I don't know George Packer well enough to determine his intentions.

"Those are particularly clear expressions of an argument being made increasingly and one that will, I think, be heard increasingly on the left if the midterms go as badly as expected, which isn't a judgment one way or the other on its accuracy."
Jesus Christ, Ben, could you be more of a jellyfish? What is YOUR judgment of the accuracy of these statements? What's the point of you even posting this without your own judgment?
Yes or no, Ben: Do you, Ben Smith of the opinion blog Politico, believe that the coming route of Liberal American politicians is a symptom of a "fundamentally unreasonable age" in America? Do you believe that the American electorate is going to fire a historic number of Progressive politicians because they just don't know what's good for them? An answer would be nice, otherwise you're nothing more than a political ebaum, recycling other people's **** without adding anything of value.

So... the *fact* that Obama's policies are universally and demonstrably disastrous for the country, the economy, race relations, our healthcare system, etc... is because the citizenry is too stupid to realize that the obvious destruction going on before their very eyes is actually not occurring?
Brilliant, lefties. Brilliant.
These nitwits are suggesting that while Obama tells everyone that 2+2 is 5, anyone who disagrees is simply not as sane as he (and they, apparently) are.
Talk about delusional.

Ah, Sullivan. So near to Obama, so far from God.
This intellectual car battery thief pimped Obama to the beautiful people and the Right Thinkers as a Safe Pair of Hands, especially in contrast to That Woman.
Now, after having been had by a practiced confidence man from the South Side of Chicago, Sullivan blames the People (and of course, their peid peiper, That Woman) for not recognizing the Radiant Brilliance of The One.
It is glorious to watch the Left Intelligentsia be taken to the cleaners by their own Con.

>>yet now, especially, that unreason seems to have taken an almost pathological turn.<<
What a funny line coming from Sully (and he has produced many). Is he talking about himself and his obsession with Palin's uterus... or does he not see that as 'pathological'?
Of course we're going to hear more and more of this. It will be used as the reason that the technocrats or elites should be allowed to take care of us, without interference.

... so the takeaway is that voters can no longer be trusted to cast the proper vote, and that the good intentions of the noble Ruling Class are lost on the great unwashed knuckle-draggers.
Perhaps our benevolent betters should take away this dangerous right to vote, before we hurt ourselves.

If the Democrats somehow manage to win in November, we will all be amazed at how quickly the mass of American humanity has regained their senses.
It takes a lot of hubris to look at the entire world in opposition to one's position and conclude that the entire world must be mad.

There are two kinds of people in the world. Producers and Users. Producers create things and conquer nature. Users, use people and things til they are used up..and their conquest is man. Intellectuals are Users.

I think what we're seeing is a logical backlash, where once liberal elites tried to use democracy to take power and drag the idiotic masses toward a utopian destiny (using legislation where possible, litigation where necessary), and the idiotic masses then used democracy to fight back. For now, the civil war is being fought, well, civilly, without bloodshed. The liberals should be grateful for that.

On what planet are Packer & Sullivan living in order to delude themselves into believing liberalism has anything to do with evidence, reason, and rationality? The entire premise of liberalism is that there is no reason required, only emotion, doing what feels right, and the expediency of the moment.
This is why liberals react so violently to any disagreement or failure. They have so deeply internalized these beliefs as a matter of fact that when the true facts are evident and counter to their beliefs they feel they have been hurt on a personal, emotional level.

Bush was voted in for a second term so it's hard to argue against Ben's premis. Perhaps the main purpose of democratic elections is to vote out the party in power. More than three terms in office leads the most virtuous to complacency and corruption. ps. Obama is amazing. Just look at how many of his election promises he has managed to deliver on against huge vested interests. His really epic battle will be against big oil and big coal.

"First, this elitism and distrust for the people"
i.e., the belief that somebody who was brightest kid in their school, went on to spend another 10 years studying a subject in college and grad school, and has spent the years since working in that field successfully enough that he has been awarded one of the very few grants available in order that his family can live a middle class existence knows no more about his field than you do, because yesterday you heard a guy on the radio who dropped out of college and spent 8 years as a coke snorting DJ until he found Jesus and he disagrees with what the professor has to say.
Somehow, I doubt that that's the kind of democracy the Founding Fathers had in mind. It's more like what Mao had in mind when he got rid of all the troublesome intellectuals. Or what Pol Pot had in mind when he sent all the people who could think to the killing fields.
What makes the tragedy a tragecomedy is that the same folks who don't believe a lifetime of work obsessing about a subject 18 hours a day 7 days a week, reading everything written on the subject, knowing every possible opinion and who holds it is worth anymore than reading a blog you selected because you knew the conclusions would agree with your preconceptions, are the same folks who whine about how the liberals are responsible for the decline of respect for hard work.

Posted By: "First, this elitism and distrust for the people"
i.e., the belief that somebody who was brightest | September 14, 2010 at 10:42 PM

In Michigan's 3rd district, the GOP candidate is posting insane articles on micro chipped garbage bins, and other factually wrong things and his supporters eat it up hook line and sinker. If being a good Republican means discounting facts and reason, then you can try to sign somebody else up.
Posted By: Mike Ross | September 13, 2010 at 01:24 PM
This is indeed true research it. They do it for you green nuts in Flint

When someone had all the power and made a huge mess, if they are an adult they reflect on where they went wrong. But if they are a Liberal, they blame the people who failed to give them even more power.
"... he’s too sane to be heard ..."
This is an oxymoron, unlike the author -- where just the last two syllables will suffice.
Ben, good job stepping outside of your comfort zone.

May I suggest re-education camps in the far northern areas of Alaska. We can provide shock therapy for those who are just mildly irritated by the great leader. My God, if this article doesn't say everything that needs to be said for the left! Uncle Joe here we come!

I have seen this attitude even in the comments to my local small town paper. Libs will spend all of their time denigrating the average American, and still be totally clueless as to why they do not gain converts. The upside of things is that lately I have been seeing fewer and fwer of them commenting at all as their buyers remorse over their choice of Obama sets in.

It is such great theater watching the elitist leftists cry and whine about how the great unwashed masses just are not as smart as they are, cannot reason, cannot understand, cannot think. Hilarious, isn't it, how arrogant they are? They are going down and melting just like the Wicked Witch of the West, and they just can't understand why. The great irony is that it is they who cannot reason, cannot think, cannot understand. Their heads have been in the clouds for so long, thinking they are so smart, they have lost all touch with reality. Good riddance, elitists. We are sick, sick, sick of you, not to mention bored to death of your arrogance. Good bye.

Brahhahahha. I mean ************ and Sullivan are just so intelligent and we unwashed are just plain STUPID. If Liberals are so intelligent why are they so predictable? If they are losing they always start out with the insults. They have used them all this time. Racist, Homophobes, Nazi, Terrorist, Islamaphobe, Fascist On and on. Then when they finally come to grips that they are losing the argument they get to where we are all just to STUPID to understand the complexities of their brilliant intellect. Happened when Reagan was elected, Happened when the House and Senate fell in 1994 and here we go again the geniuses just wallow back to their same old insults. They are lucky we are not as STUPID and VIOLENT as they think we are. If we were they would already already be seeing their beheaded body from the heads rolling down the hill.

Posted By: William
"Obama is amazing. Just look at how many of his election promises he has managed to deliver on against huge vested interests. His really epic battle will be against big oil and big coal."
Please, Obama had a super majority, and even then, was barely able to pass his unpopular legislation via bribery and arm twisting. So again, please, don't tell me Obama is "amazing" as he is clearly a player who can only win when the deck is stacked overwhelmingly in his favor.

The problem is not that the voters are stupid but that they are kept ignorant. A part of that ignorance is due to the deterioration of our public education system over the years. However, more important in keeping the voters ignorant is the takeover of our news media by a few huge corporations.
The founders of this country recognized the critical need for a free and vibrant press to inform the citizens. A democracy cannot survive without a vibrant free press to inform its citizens. Unfortunately we no longer have this.

"Evidence, knowledge, argument, proportionality, nuance, complexity, and the other indispensable tools of the liberal mind "
This just cracks me up because both sides think these are the hallmarks of their side and not the other. It's not that either side doesn't have these, it's that we fundamentally disagree about what is good for America and it's people.
Why don't we want free stuff and money that they take from other people? Why don't we know what's good for us?
BECAUSE WE DON'T WANT OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY. We want the right to earn it on our own without being forced to give it away and the right to the self respect that goes along with that. We want the incentive to earn and the choice of where to spend our money when we earn it.
We are not stupid or uneducated. We have a different view about what is for the good of the people and the country. Are you guys too stupid to understand that??

The American people are taking a huge dose of anti-parasite medicine on November 2 to flush these job-killing, illegal-loving, Muslim-favoring, budget busting, private sector hating, government growing, dRATS!
FLUSH FLUSH FLUSH and goodbye, hopefully forever!

Ive read articles just in the last month with the same thing(we are too stupid to know better) from such leftist illuminaries as Eugene Robinson(black Racist) EJ Dionne(wimp) and Gary Sargent(plainly stupid) ,. These 3 leading lights of the left have a collective IQ below the temperature of an icicle in Siberia in January. Seems we now have other "liberals" who seem to beleive(libs cant think-its not in there genetic code) who want to trash anyone who dislikes Barak Zero and Nasty Nazi Piglosi by questioning there judgement. Well, boys-at least we have the ability to reason. You lefties can only suck Soros hind quarters.

Yes there has been outright insanity loose in the nation! What you are seeing now is the adults arriving home to a house nearly destroyed by rampaging, know it all children who couldn't see beyond, or even contemplate the results of their foolish immature plans for a wild party they evidently thought would never end. Now the main task is to put the house in order and then, to contemplate a just punishment.